Tag: warren spector

Epic Mickey creator Warren Spector has stated that his next project will not be a musical related game, but will instead focus on a procedural narrative. Spector sadly wouldn’t give any further hints as to what his next video game project would be, but here’s what he had to say.

“I’m not going to tell you what, but the next game I do will probably focus more on procedural narrative than on music, because that’s an easier target at the scale I want to work on. But, at some point, I hope I get the opportunity to make a musical game.”

In an interview with GameSpot, Deus Ex and Epic Mickey designer Warren Spector displayed his enthusiasm for Nintendo and the Wii U. Spector said he thinks Nintendo has been written off too many times, and that if you’re underestimating Nintendo, you’re doing so at your own risk. Spector also said that he thinks the video game industry needs Nintendo, because it’s a company that is dedicated to making games.

“I’ve been pretty up front about my enthusiasm for Nintendo. I think we need a company that’s dedicated to games. Every time I visit Nintendo, I’m relieved to have spent time in a place where you can just feel how much everyone loves games. And, really, how many times have people written Nintendo off? I think you underestimate them at your peril.”

“Did the world really need another Wolfenstein game? Did we need a generically dark, monochromatic, FPS, kill-the-Nazi-giant-robot game? Uh. No. The world did not. I am so tired of stuff like this.

“You’re welcome to write off my opinions but I have a right to express complaints about people recycling work as old as I am. I’m allowed to complain about the difficulty of getting new stuff green lit — new IP, new game styles and so on given my perspective as someone who’s constantly fighting the pressure to ‘just make a shooter.’

“And given the venom aimed at Disney Epic Mickey by people with no concern for how hard the team worked I don’t think I need any lectures about that. I know how hard developers work — better than most people — but I wish all that effort were spent on something that pointed toward gaming’s future rather than looking toward our past.”

Disney Interactive Studios subsidiary Junction Point Studios is no more, and its founder, Warren Spector, no longer works for Disney. The two games Junction Point Studios developed, Epic Mickey and its sequel, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, are Disney’s properties, and Disney retains the rights to the IP of the franchise, in which Disney mascot Mickey Mouse is the star.

Disney has confirmed that Junction Point Studios is defunct as of today, January 29th, 2013. The studio was established in 2005 by Warren Spector, and it was acquired by Disney Interactive Studios in 2007. In its lifetime, the studio developed two video games – Wii-exclusvie Epic Mickey and its sequel, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, which was released on multiple platforms. We wish everyone who’s affected by the closure the best of luck.

“It was with much sadness that we informed our teams today of changes to our Games organization, which include the closure of Junction Point Studios. These changes are part of our ongoing effort to address the fast-evolving gaming platforms and marketplace and to align resources against our key priorities. We’re extremely grateful to Warren Spector and the Junction Point team for their creative contributions to Disney with Disney Epic Mickey and Disney Epic Mickey 2.”

The LA Times is reporting the Warren Spector’s critically disappointing Epic Mickey 2 only managed to sell 270,000 units in the United States from its launch till the end of the year. The original Epic Mickey for Wii fared much better by selling 1.3 million copies. It’s not known whether Disney will work with Junction Point anymore. Disney unveiled today that it’s currently working on Disney Infinity with Avalanche Studios.

Warren Spector, the developer behind the Epic Mickey franchise, has told Red Bull that he would love to see the Epic Mickey franchise continue. Spector also suggested ideas for some Oswald games, as he would love to see the character have his own shot at stardom. Here are some of Warren Spector’s ideas.

“Oh man, there are so many aspects of Disney’s history to draw from, we’ll never run out of material. There are all sorts of forgotten characters, concepts from films that were never made, rides that have been retired from the Parks or never built at all,” he says. “We could map games for the next 80 years about Disney’s last 80.”

“I should probably keep some secrets, but I’d love to do something with all the rejected versions of Tinkerbell [from Peter Pan] we saw in the archives – I think fans would get a huge kick out of that.”

“I’d love to see the Disney Epic Mickey series continue – there are plenty of stories still to tell about Wasteland and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse! I’d love to see some Oswald games, where he’s on his own. He deserves a shot at solo stardom. Then there are the ‘duck’ games – Donald, Scrooge, etc – that are just waiting to be made. And a bunch of us at Junction Point have thoughts about Goofy and the Gremlins and a hundred others.”